“Hecate.” She sets my hand on my stomach. “I don’t care. He could have done something. Poseidon could have done something.Anyof them could have acted at any time to stop Zeus. How many people had he killed, directly or not? How many had he harmed because he was too powerful to fight?” She narrows her eyes. “How many of those instances occurred whileyouheld the title of Hermes?”
“Too many,” I whisper. Only the knowledge that killing Zeus would be a bandage—and not even a good one at that—stayed my hand. He had to die, but not until the right time. I’m still not certain itwasthe right time when the fight with Hades resulted in his death, but if Hades hadn’t done it, then Demeter would have the momenthe laid hands on Persephone. There was no way they’d have made it to their first anniversary.
For the first time since seeing her again, Circe actually seems troubled. The calm mask flickers, revealing the fiery woman I fell in love with a lifetime ago. “How could you stand it, Hecate? I’ve seen the pictures, the many articles in that farce you call a gossip column. You were near enough to slip a knife between his ribs countless times over the years. Why didn’t you?”
My mouth is far too dry. I wish I could blame it on the drugs, but shame is the true source. She’s right; I had plenty of opportunity to kill the last Zeus. The others, too. There isn’t a locked door in Olympus that can keep me out. I could have murdered my way through the Thirteen and kept doing it until the legacy families stopped trying to put people into those positions…or I died. The only reason Ididn’tdo that was because Atalanta. She pulled me back from the brink, ensured I had a slip of a soul left to save.
I tell Circe the same thing Atalanta told me all those years ago, when vengeance was the only thing I could see. “He’s a symptom of the problem, not the source. Killing him wouldn’t have brought you back.” My voice cracks. “I had to make sure there’d never be another you in the future of Olympus.”
Her sympathy falls away as if it’d never been. “But there were others like me. Lamia. Leda. Persephone herself would have numbered among them, and not a single person stepped forward to stop it.”
“Hades did.”
“Hades had an opportunity dropped in his lap and took advantage of it.” She scoffs. “If she hadn’t fled to the lower city, he wouldn’t have lifted a hand to save her.”
I hate that she’s right. The concept of acceptable losses has become far too familiar to me. “That doesn’t makeyourway better.”
“Yes, it does.” She rises, taking her warmth with her. I can actually see her slipping her mask back into place. “Because, unlike you, the only losses I find acceptable are those of my enemies.”
“Circe—”
“No.” She slashes a hand through the air, still graceful in her anger. “You don’t get to tell me about the high road you’re taking. You’ve stood by while the Thirteen committed untold amounts of harm to those who couldn’t defend themselves. To people like you were before you becamethat. People likeIwas. Zeus is the worst offender but hardly the only one. Peitho had plenty of indirect blood on her hands, which she’s now paid for. The last Apollo went after teenagers. Athena tried to have a woman killed simply because Odysseus found his mistress inconvenient—and that’s not the first time it happened. The list goes on!”
“That doesn’t make your way better!” I’ve done what I can to ensure justice finds its way to the predators in this city, but I’ve had to move cautiously because I couldn’t risk losing the Hermes title. The secrets of the barrier were hidden too well. It took me years to sift through the spotty information about what really kept the barrier up all these generations. Years of searching Olympus’s secrets, of honing my skills to break into more and more complicated locks. Imagine my surprise when it all led to a bunker on the outskirts of the upper city. Somewhere I’d walked past hundreds of times over the years. “At leastmyway isn’t going to be wholesale slaughter.”
“Which is whyyourway isn’t making any progress at all.” She carefully drags her fingers through her short hair, refreshing the style.“I know how good you are, but you won’t make it out of this room. I’m too close, Hecate. I can’t have anyone interfering—even you.”
She’s not lying. I’mtrapped. Panic flutters in the base of my throat. I always have a way out. It doesn’t matter where I’ve wandered over the years; I always have an exit strategy. Until today. Until I let my emotions get the best of me. Fornothing. Eros is still dead, and now Atalanta is on her own. I suspect Circe’s plan for the lower city’s barrier is the same as mine for the upper city.
She’ll find the location of the main hub and blow it up, bringing down the barrier. She has a small number of soldiers, yes, but clearly her plan hinges on the civilian population doing her dirty work.
Which is a fucking problem. I glare up at her. “If you send that mob to the lower city, it will be a bloodbath. There have been tensions between the upper city and the lower city since the founding of Olympus, and the events of the last year haven’t helped.”
“Especially because Hades brought up the secondary barrier, choosing to protect his own people and leave the rest of Olympus to rot,” Circe counters coolly. “Whatever is coming for the lower city, he put it into motion when he made that choice.”
I grit my teeth. “Whatever is coming. Interesting use of passive voice there, Circe. You’re setting this up. You don’t get to wash your hands of the blood that will inevitably follow.”
She walks slowly to the door, pauses, and looks over her shoulder. “That’s the difference between us, Hecate. You always assume I’m trying to keep my hands clean because that’s whatyoudo. When the barrier falls, I’ll be the first across the river.”
10Atalanta
“This is a damned mess.” I scrub my face, trying to keep my frustration locked down. “We’re wasting time.”
Apollo makes a sound like he’s going to argue, but Cassandra cuts in before he can get a word out. “We have eyes and ears all around the university. That’s not nothing. We know Circe has incited a mob and they’re frothing at the mouth for a target. She doesn’t seem to plan to offer Hermes up to them, which isalsonot nothing. She hasn’t been spotted leaving the campus yet, so we know she’s still there.”
“Circe has already proven she can manipulate the camera network in Olympus,” I snap. I shouldn’t have come here. It was the smart, logical thing to do, but there’s no outlet for the restless energydemanding Iact.
“She’s not bothering to do it now.” Apollo runs a hand down Cassandra’s arm, expression contemplative. “She has no reason to hide any longer. She holds most of the cards.”
I mutter a curse and push to my feet. I’m no closer to finding exactly where Hermes is—or prying her out of that bitch’s hands. She’s got to be suffering, even if Circe hasn’t laid a finger on her.
What if she’s not?
I shove the nasty little voice away. Of everyone in this cursed city, I know how much Hermes loves Circe, even after all these years. I thought I had to compete with a ghost, but now there’s a real, live woman bursting back into our lives, and that means a different kind of battle—even if she wasn’t trying to kill dozens of people.
At least Hector is gone. He went to retrieve his wife and daughter and seek refuge in the lower city. I hope he makes it. The streets were safe enough with most of the civilian population evacuated to the countryside. Now that they’re back, I can’t guarantee what they’ll do if they see a legacy scion wandering about.
I take a breath and try to focus. Cassandra’s parents were killed years ago, but she and her sister are still technically legacy scions. If something happens to Cassandra, Hermes will whoop my ass, and Cassandra won’t leave without her sister. “Where is your sister?”
